833 AH
In Ethiopia, a calamity impossible to describe took place. As far as I understand, its king, Dāwud b. Sayf ʾArʿad b. Qusṭanṭīn, called al-Ḥaṭī, took control of ʾAmḥara. He and they are Jacobite Christians. When he died in the year 812, his son, Tadrus b. Dāwud, succeeded him. He didn’t last long, and he died. He was succeeded by his brother ʾAbram, called ʾIsḥaq b. Dāwud b. Sayf ʾArʿad. His rule was splendid. At that time one of the mamluks of al-ʾamīr Buzlār, governor of Damascus, known as ʾAlṭunbughā Mughriq, rose in service until he managed the wilāyat Qūṣ in al-Ṣaʿīd. Then he fled to Ethiopia and joined with this al-Ḥaṭī. He taught his followers lancing and archery, and other instruments of war. Then a Circassian mamluk joined al-Ḥaṭī also. He had been a zardkāsh. He made a royal armory for him. A man from among the Coptic kuttāb of Egypt, named Fakhr al-Dawla, headed for him, and he organized his kingdom for him. He collected taxes and recruited soldiers for him, so that his affluence increased, to the point that, I was informed by one who witnessed it, he rode in a splendid procession, with a cross of red ruby in his hand. He had held it and put his hand on his leg, so that this ruby cross was visible and both sides of it could be seen in his grasp. He became greedy to take the lands of Islam because of the greatness of their attractions that had been described to him. So he sent to Tabriz a merchant in order to invite the Faranj to rise up with him. He attacked those Muslims in his kingdom. He killed them and captured and imprisoned many. Among those imprisoned were Manṣūr and Muḥammad, two sons of Saʿd al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʾAḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Walaṣmaʿ al-Jabartī, king of the Muslims in Ethiopia. God took revenge on him, and in Dhu l-Qaʿda he died. His son, ʾAndrās b. ʾIsḥaq succeeded him, but he died in four months. His uncle, Ḥazbanāy b. Dāwud b. Sayf ʾArʿad succeeded him, and he died in Ramaḍān of ‘34. His brother Salmūn b. ʾIsḥāq b. Dāwud b. Sayf ʾArʿad succeeded him, so there were in ʾAmḥara four kings in less than a year.